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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization scandal It raised national security risks last year and should have been handled better, according to a new report from the Pentagon’s watchdog.
The Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), in its 188-page report, criticized the Austin team for failing to properly notify key officials and transfer authorities from their work. The OIG also slammed Austin and his staff for how they went about it has taken care of hospitalization for surgeries or complications related to prostate cancer in December 2023 and early 2024.
In January of last year, Austin’s hospitalization and failing to adequately notify the White House and Congress of the treatment caused controversy and drove aa hearing in Congress and a Biden administration review of the Cabinet Secretary’s notifications to the President.
Inspector General Robert Storch said that “the ability of the DoD and the government to operate smoothly and the continuity of leadership under any circumstances are critical to our national security.”
“While we found no adverse consequences to DoD operations arising from how the hospitalizations we reviewed were handled, the risks to our national defense, including the command and control of critical national security operations of the DoD, were unnecessarily increased,” Storch said in a statement. .
“While DoD has taken some important steps to address these concerns, additional improvements are needed to ensure DoD’s readiness, transparency, and fulfillment of its mission,” he continued. “These improvements are not just an administrative necessity; they are an operational and national security imperative.”
The Pentagon disputed that the report had found significant errors in the way how hospitalization it was managed
A senior defense official told reporters Austin “made a mistake, apologized and committed to improving transparency and processes moving forward, something the department has already done over the past year to ensure it doesn’t happen again to pass”.
“There was no scandal, there was no cover-up and in fact the report found that at no time was the secretary incapable of performing his duties,” the official said. “The report also found that at no time was there a breakdown in command and control, and at no time were there gaps in authorities or operational impacts.
They added that “at all times, the Secretary of Defense or the Deputy Secretary of Defense was fully prepared to support the President as Commander-in-Chief and had access to the necessary unclassified and classified communications systems.”
The defense official, however, acknowledged a “deficiency” in the notification process and said Austin should have notified President Biden of his cancer diagnosis earlier. Biden i didn’t know about the defense secretary’s hospitalization in early January until three days later and the cancer diagnosis until after the procedure.
The OIG report suggested 20 recommendations for the Pentagon to implement, many of which the defense official said were already being worked on. Recommendations include expanding those involved in the decision-making process and improving the flow of information to the department and other stakeholders.
The dog added that some of the directives the Pentagon has already implemented are insufficient and do not take into account situations such as hospitalization or how medical personnel and drugs could be involved in transfer authorities.
The Pentagon did its thing 30 day review last year that he largely found no fault among staff for the hospitalization scandal. Austin also held a press conference where he apologized not be transparent and attributed it to his need for privacy.
Austin was first hospitalized in December 2023 for cancer-related surgery, and had to transfer their authorities to Under Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks for 36 hours.
He was then hospitalized again on January 1, 2024, for pain related to surgery, and Austin transferred his authorities to Hicks from the afternoon of January 2 to 5, but did not tell her that she was secretary of acting defense according to the OIG report.
Austin remained in the hospital until January 15, but maintained his authorities. The report said Austin should have considered turning over his authorities on Jan. 6 and Jan. 8, during two medical procedures in which he was moderately sedated.
The defense chief also did not transfer his authorities until Feb. 11 when he was hospitalized for another medical procedure to treat severe pain, according to the OIG, which said he should have transferred them hours earlier.
And when an ambulance took Austin to the hospital on January 1, 2024, the same secretary directed his personal staff to Make sure the ambulance was not using lights or sirens and that they do not notify anyone of the situation, according to the OIG.
Notifications in December and early January were also not made in a timely manner to the Comptroller General, Congress or the White House, the OIG said.
For the report, the watchdog examined reams of communications and messages and interviewed 44 witnesses.
